To Dos Day

___ Item 1: CHECK OUT SCOTT TOPICS.
The newly revitalized bloghouse of the one and only Scott Poulson-Bryant, a brilliant writer/cultural commentator, longtime StinkyPal, and member of the Sophia Sisterhood. Click over, click often.

___ Item 2: "THE BOARD OF EDUCATION TOOK AWAY MY PAROLE."
In the coming week, I will be overwhelmed by periodic bouts of dread and sadness, I'm sure. I love my job, I do, but that doesn't mean I wanna go "Back To School".

___ Item 3: ENJOY THE SCENERY.
Peruse the visual pleasures of Querelle, courtesy of My New Plaid Pants. Attentive readers will recall my own obsession with this strange and twisted little hulk of homoerotic insanity. But 'tis always a delight to peruse.

___ Item 4: DIDJA HEAR THAT IT'S AN ELECTION YEAR?
Politics are poopy. But that doesn't mean that I'm not becoming fairly obsessed with the looking-glass-ness of it all. I've long felt that this year's contest -- for all its ostensibly historic potential in terms of race and gender and talk about extreme libruls -- has really been a contest between two stripes of corporate "conservatism." On the blue hand, we've got a model of corporate citizenship in which the corporation must look out for its interests but understands that workers, communities and the environment are part of its success. On the red hand, we've got a zero-sum game of greed and powerlust. For me, the distinctions are clear but I'm amazed that I'm getting so worked up about a candidate who, in 1980 lets say, would have seemed like a total right-winger. How the times have changed. Indeed, the most sensible voice I've heard about the whole shipoopie is that of Andrew Bacevich, a conservative, who was featured this past week on what is (surprisingly enough) truly one of my favorite tv shows, Bill Moyers Journal. (See also Bacevich's heart-stirring editorial on the Iraq war here.) Then, just to get your blood really boiling, enjoy either one of these two recent McCain videos, one is a mock-up for a totally true "attack" ad by some very smart yahoo who has nothing to do with the campaign (h/t) and the other is a quick survey of McCain's economic rhetoric/cluelessness assembled by some activist group (h/t). I'm in a place of cynical dread about the next several months of electioneering, about what the process will reveal about US culture, but I do yet cling to a sliver of -- yes -- hope.

___ Item 5: RE-VOTE FOR SEPTEMBER.
Speaking of cynical electioneering, some strange-ish vote-manipulations on the previous Supporting Actress poll caused me to reboot and refine the voting for September. The new-ish poll's now open and the race is on. Be sure to (re)cast your vote in the column at right or here.

___ Item 6: HMMMMMMMMM.
What's on your mind? Fall movies? Summer movies? Release-date shenanigans? Celesbian nuptials? Michael Phelps' Gold Medal Haltertop? Margaret Cho? Anna Faris? Hamlet 2? Death Races? Syllabi and Chapters and Deadlines, Oh My? Andrea Minguzzi? Naked Harry Potter? The fact that this year's college freshmen were born in 1990? If any of the above spinning thoughts are sorta freaking you out (as they are me), or if you've got new baubles for my nonsense necklace, please do spill the details about the things that make you go "HMMMM" in comments. My brain's dizzy it's so busy and would welcome some company!

Have at it, lovelies...